"Zoo Island" -- Tomas Rivera

Migrant Workers

           Tomas Rivera’s short story, “Zoo Island,” describes how Mexican immigrants suffered in the 1920s and 1930s, but it also offers a bit of hope. The immigrants and their children work in the fields, day after day.  When it’s dark, they go to the market and then back to their meager camp to sleep.  They wake the next day and endlessly repeat the same, excruciatingly boring, cycle. One of the children, Jose, decides to ward off boredom by taking a census (a population count) to see how many people are in their community.  Jose is a fifteen year old boy who lives in the migrant work camp with many other Mexicans.  The camp is on a farm owned by an American.  Jose’s census reveals that there are more people in his “town” than in the nearby town where they get their groceries.   Despite their greater population, the other town has far more wealth.  It has churches, schools and other standard facilities that Americans too often take for granted. Rivera’s story describes both the pain and pride that the young Jose feels at realizing his community is larger Knowing this gives the boy and his community a bit of hope.  Rivera’s story highlights the inequity and poverty of immigrants during this time, but it also points toward a future where things might change.

Because these immigrants are treated, literally, like animals, one of the older workerssuggests Jose give the immigrant camp the name “Zoo Island.” Jose and his friends and familylive in chicken coops.  Because these coops are like cages, the town’s new title suggests the workers themselves might as well be zoo animals since they are treated no better than animals.  The people point at them and gawk at them just as visitors at a zoo might do:

“I think they want to feel like we’re a whole lot of people. In that little town where we buy our food there are only 83 souls […] they have a church, a dance hall, a filling station, a grocery store and even a little school. Here we’re more than 83, I’ll bet, and we don’t have any of that. Why, we only have a water pump and four outhouses[!]”

 The Mexican workers are isolated on their camp, just as if they were on an island.  It seems there’s no way out for these workers.  But Jose’s census hints that there is power in numbers and that one day, the workers will count.  They will escape the cage they’re trapped in now and make themselves heard.

Tomas Rivera's own history reflects the situation of his characters.  His parents were Mexican immigrants and he was born in Texas, 1935.  His dream was always to break out of his migrant shell and he did. He got his PhD in Philosophy at The University of Oklahoma and later taught at high schools. He was so highly regarded that he became the chancellor of UC Riverside and he was the first Mexican American to hold such a position in the UC system. The character Jose was most likely based upon himself. Rivera worked on farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Dakota before he got his degree in Oklahoma. He wrote his first short story after he was in a car accident in 1946.  This prompted him to continue his career as an author until he died in 1984 of a heart attack.  As an author, Rivera copied the dialect of the people he farmed with, giving a realistic feel to his characters and their perspectives.  He chose to write "Zoo Island" in the third person because it puts the reader in the position of looking in at the characters.  This emphasizes his theme of a zoo and his characters as the animals.  Rivera uses his skills as an author and his own background to enhance his stories.

Don Simon, one of the characters in the short story is a very important character to the story because he adds resistance, a conflict and gives the title to the story. He is introduced towards the end of the story as the grumpy old man who doesn't like children and is sometimes violent. He is asked the Census questions and answers them with sarcastic and witty responses. This problem gives the story its conflict. This character shows Jose about just how racist some of the other people can be. Although these highly emphasized facts/comments go over Jose’s head and go to their sign, it still shows through to the reader’s perspective.

          Don Simon, one of the characters in the short story “Zoo Island,” is one of the most important characters. His part is large for a short story, making everything even he says more important. At a first glance he may seem like an old man with anger management problems, but on the second or third reading, his character is opened up and you can see the importance of his role. He came up with the name for their farm, “Zoo Island,” which, because they live in an immigration farm where people come to gawk at them, fits as a title. Although this originally goes over the young Jose’s head, he still likes the sound of it and makes a sign.

In the first half of Don Simons monologue, he is uncharismatic and almost mean, but halfway in there, his character shifts and tells him that he is giving their community hope and agrees with the choices Jose makes. He tells Jose, "in the world, when you count yourself, you begin everything, that way you know you're not only here, but you're alive." He uses the metaphor “Alive” meaning having a good time and LIVING your best day. Before, their lives were so boring that even a census count can make people get excited and make them think that they “Count.” With Don Simon’s blessing, Jose makes a sign and feels good about what he did for his community.

The young people in “Zoo Island” are so desperate for something to do, that even something as small as a simple Census count can make them feel like they matter. The young Jose and his friends go to each house and ask a few questions while counting everyone else in the homes. They count everyone, even the 2 unborn babies and they manage to get 86 people. Having more in their town then the one they get their groceries at, they feel like they “count.” Even a Census can make a town full of nobody’s, feel like they are somebody’s.